Who does not want to be a Crorepati afterall !

November 22, 2018

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Those of us who lived during the beginning years of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) hosted by the Amitabh Bachhan would remember the anticipation and excitement of 9 PM every weekday night, and the usual banter in every household every night would be “9 बज गए क्या ” (Is it 9 PM) !

Who would have thought that children who weren’t even aware of could be motivated to attempt more worksheets using the same concept in the Cuemath classroom. Except someone did think about it.

CTP Usha Srinivasan customised the game show to promote a growth mindset amongst her students. Since this September, she has used an innovative target setting system in her Cuemath class called ‘Kaun Banega Cuemath Crorepati’.

And hence, she is the winner of Cuemath rewards for target setting competition launched in October.

Usha M’am has been associated with Cuemath since May 2017 and runs a center in Thane, Maharasthra with 45 active students at present. With immense experience in the corporate sector and a passion for touching children’s lives, it is not surprising that she has been one of the most forward-looking member of the Cuemath teacher community.

Every day when the students come in, they will have to set a realistic target of minimum 2/3 sheets for 1_hr class as self target (varies for different grades, see below) to win 5 lakhs & 2 Cuemath stickers.

In addition she sets a teacher’s target of 1 or 2 more sheets for bonus 5 lakh points and 2 more stickers.

If their accuracy is 100% then the points get doubled i.e. if they have won 5 lakhs by achieving their self target with 100% accuracy they get 10 lakhs and 5 stickers. If they have won 10 lakhs by achieving the teacher’s target also with 100% accuracy then they get 20 lakhs and and 10 stickers !

Students can trade their stickers for points i.e they can give up all the stickers and double their points further or partially give it up and get the proportional points. They will not be able to trade points for stickers though.

That’s not it, in the spirit of the game show, following helplines are available for the students to aim for 100% accuracy but at a price of certain points.

Audience poll equivalent known as “peer collaboration”: They can ask their peers if they would like to help them, and give their friend 1 lakh point, they can avail this 2 times in a class

Call a friend equivalent known as “teacher’s help”: They can get –
5 minutes of teacher’s time at cost of 1 lakh and 1 sticker, (i.e. forego 1 lakh and 1 sticker from what they earned)
6 minutes for 2 lakhs and 2 stickers
7 minutes for 3 lakhs and 3 stickersThey have to maintain class discipline rules and wait for their turn though.

50-50 equivalent known as “Skip for now”: They can skip that particular problem for now but choose another problem from the earlier sheets either not solved or corrections or choose from sheets ahead

Target benchmarks –
For Grades 2-4: 2/3 sheets as self-target and teacher’s target is 1 or 2 additional sheetsFor Class/year 1 and KG: minimum 3 sheets as self-target and teacher’s target is 4 or 5 sheetsFor Class / Year 6 and 7: Self target is completion of 1 or 2 sheets and teacher’s target is 3 or 4 sheets

This approach to target setting makes the class fun and keeps the student interested in growing. Usha M’am compares this to sports and says, “When children play football or run around, they are not concerned about getting material rewards out of it. They like the points and they love to play!”

The impact of this approach has been evident in just two months. According to Usha M’am –

75 to 80% of students are able to achieve their self targets, 10 to 15% achieve teacher’s target

This has created great interest in students and they eagerly wait to open up the KBCC dashboard every month

Students maintain their scores in each class themselves on the 1st page of their workbook and also the sticker dashboard in their Cuechamp diaries

Students submit their diaries on their last class in the week and get it back on the 1st class of the week with the stickers they earned for the week

In addition, some enthusiastic students also take the workbook home to meet up their targets for the week, especially during vacations, many of them carried the books so that they can practice “2 sheet in 20 minutes” daily. Students get 2 lakh points if they achieve this target and if they are committing more time and completing more than 2 sheets at home they get 1 lakh points for each sheet completed at home

She adds that 85% of the students will become Crorepati in the 1st month of this program and they want to go for millionaire and billionaire challenge now !

KBCC can be easily used in any Cuemath classroom and you can always add your own personal zing to it by introducing other rewards or helplines ! To keep the students interested, you will have to stay a step ahead and keep innovating.

Usha M’am has scored full on innovation, impact and scalability in this challenge. We congratulate her on behalf of the entire teacher community.

Cuemath is glad to have such dedicated and creative teachers with us on the mission of making children great at math. If you have other ideas you would want to share, feel free to write to us at first.teacher@cuemath.com and if you try KBCC, do share your experiences with us.

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About Cuemath

Cuemath is a sophisticated after-school math learning program for children from KG to 8th grade.
Designed by math, education and technology graduates from IIT, IIM, Cambridge, Stanford and Harvard.
Cuemath is making thousands of children great at math.